"A GAMEBOY TO THE PAST"

WRITTEN BY
LAURIE KELLEY

EDITED AND HTMLIZED BY
MARK MOORE

Tuesday, September 12, 1989, 6 AM
In a place known as Mirror World lived a scientist by the name of Li
Shiroshi, who worked toward helping the people of the land.
Now Dr. Shiroshi was bent over her now finished creation, a supercomputer
capable of making its own decisions, and began the activation sequence.
Suddenly, alarms went off throughout the laboratory. Lights flashed on
and off.
Li Shiroshi quickly deactivated her creation and opened a warp to a
little-known place in the world.
And hoped against hope that it would be safe.
Saturday, September 12, 1992, 10 AM - Three years later
It was a normal day for the N Team. Mike, Kevin, Lana, and Stacey were
practicing. Rick, Romeo, and Julius were playing football outside. Simon was
admiring himself in the mirror. Kid Icarus and Mega Man had recently warped
back from Dr. Right's lab. And Gameboy was "pacing" around the living room.
Well, it was an almost normal day.
Gameboy had been acting very strange lately. Something in his programming
kept on telling him that something was up, but what?
Mother Brain was gone. Wily was out of the way - for now, anyway - and
everyone was happy.
Everyone except him, that is.
"Whoa! Slow downicus! You're making me dizzy!" Kid Icarus stood in the
doorway. He'd been watching Gameboy circle the room for the past five
minutes. "Besides, I don't think Her Highnicus would appreciate having to
recharge you every minuticus!" Kid Icarus went and sat on the couch. "What's
bothering you-icus?" he asked.
"Cause unknown." Gameboy replied.
"Do you have any inside damage?" the archer asked.
"Negative."
"How about the outsidicus?"
"Scanning . . . " Gameboy closed his eyes for a second. "Negative."
"Hmmm, this is toughicus." Kid Icarus got up and walked to the doorway
opposite where he stood before. "Maybe your creator would - hey, that's
iticus!" Kid Icarus began running towards the band room, with Gameboy
following.
"This is fun!" Lana exclaimed, putting her bass on the guitar stand. "Why
didn't we think of doing this sooner?"
"Your Highnicus!" Kid Icarus appeared in the doorway to the room where
the band was practicing.
"What is it, Kid?" Lana asked.
"I think I found out Gameboy's problemicus!"
"What is it, Shrimp?" Mike asked.
"We need to find his creator!" the archer replied. "A machine without a
creator is like a baby without parents!"
"Who is his creator?" Lana asked.
"Maybe it's in his memory banks." Kevin suggested.
"Is whoever did create him, like, still alive?" Stacey asked.
"I'd think so." Lana replied.
"Only one way to find out." Mike said.
"Hmmm, this is interesting." Dr. Right said.
After Kevin and Lana arrived at Dr. Right's lab and told Dr. Right of
their plan, he decided to probe Gameboy's memory banks.
"What is it?" Lana asked.
"Gameboy has no memory of his creator at all."
"But I thought all robots had that information." Kevin said.
"There are exceptions to that rule." Dr. Right replied. "What's this
thing?" Dr. Right pulled some sort of metal tube from where it was jammed
between two boards.
Just then, it began to glow.
Dr. Right, startled, dropped the object, and it rolled until it hit the
opposite wall.
There, it broke in two perfect halves, and a tiny hologram of a woman who
looked to be in her mid-twenties stood between the halves.
"Gameboy," the hologram began, "I am Li Shiroshi. I designed and created
you. I am not sure whether or not you will find this message, but in case
you do, there's something you should know. Another creation of mine, a robot
similiar to you, only a little smaller, has been reprogrammed by Dr. Ivan
Tilaski, my former assistant. He and the robot, named GP, have been
traveling to various worlds, destroying entire cities at a time. I was
hoping we could live a peaceful life together, but now, that is not
possible. My time is short, but if you survived the trip through the warp,
you just might be able to stop Dr. Tilaski and GP before Videoland is
destroyed. You may be the only hope for us. Please listen to me, Gameboy."
There, the message stopped.
"That's how she disappeared." Dr. Right said in realization.
"You knew that woman?" Lana asked.
"Knew her? I taught her." Dr. Right put Gameboy back together and
activated him.
"Did you find the information you were searching for?" Gameboy asked.
"And then some." Kevin replied. "When we get home, we'll tell you all
about it."
The N Team had been gathered in the Conference room and now waited for
Kevin and Lana to speak.
"What did you findicus?" Kid Icarus wondered.
"What was so important that you had to wake me from my beauty sleep?"
Simon asked.
"There seems to be another threat to Videoland and its people." Kevin
said. "Some small yet dangerous robot and evil scientist are going through
the video worlds and causing all hell to break loose."
"What's hell?" Lana asked.
"I'll explain later." Kevin told her. "Anyway, we'll divide into pairs
and search for these menaces. We'll each take a communicator. Whoever finds
them first will call the rest."
"How will we know? We don't even know what they look like." Rick pointed
out.
"Easy," Kevin replied, "just look for a copy of Gameboy. Any other
questions before we get started?"
Everyone shook their heads.
"All righty then, here are your partners. Romeo, you're with Julius.
Stacey, you work with Lana. Simon and Gameboy will be together. Kid, you're
with Mega Man. Rick, you and Duke will be with me. Is everyone okay with
their partner?"
Everyone nodded.
"All right. Now, here's where you go. Romeo and Julius will go to
Kongoland. Stacey, you and Lana will stay here. Simon and Gameboy will go to
Castlevania. Kid Icarus and Mega Man will go to Mount Icarus. Rick, Duke,
and me will search Bayouland."
"And I'll tell Zelda to keep an eye on things on Hyrule." Lana said.
"Is everyone ready?" Kevin asked.
The others nodded.
"Then what're we waiting for? Let's go!"
Simon and Gameboy had been searching for about an hour now, without luck.
"We must have circled Castlevania three times already." Simon grumbled,
sitting on the ground. "My feet are killing me!"
"Area Scan activated." Gameboy replied. He stood still for a few seconds
before jerking. "Presence detected! Red alert!"
Two shadowy figures far ahead of the heroes opened a warp and jumped
through it.
"Follow them!" Simon ordered, running towards the warp with Gameboy at
his heels.
"Romeo! Julius! What are you mega doing here?"
Mega Man and Kid Icarus were checking out an old concrete building where
they thought they saw GP head, when they were nearly run over by Romeo and
Julius.
"We thought we saw the robot head through this warp." Romeo explained,
gesturing towards the closing warp.
"Did they look like thaticus?" Kid Icarus pointed to a spot a few yards
behind the group, where a lone figure was about ready to jump into a warp.
"Duh, that's one of 'em." Julius said.
The group headed towards the warp.
"So, Li, what do you think of my plan now?" Ivan Tilaski watched the N
Team on his console, as GP and Adrian Tilaski, Ivan's son, lured the N Team.
"When they reach the lab, my robots will finish them off. Then, I'll get to
finish what Mother Brain and Wily started."
"You won't get away with this, Tilaski." Li Shiroshi replied. "Gameboy
and his friends will foul your plans as they did Mother Brain's and Wily's."
"You think so, do you?" Ivan began to laugh evilly. "I'm smarter than
both Mother Brain and Dr. Wily put together! No one can beat me!"
"If you're half as smart as you think you are, you would - " Li Shiroshi
let out a cry of pain as one of the robots, which looked almost exactly like
Elec Man, sent a wave of electricity through her.
"Take her back to her cell." Dr. Tilaski ordered him and a robot that
looked like a bear. "I won't be needing her for a while."
"What is this, a party?" Link asked.
He and Zelda were in the castle garden. Several warps had opened almost
at once, and now most of the N Team was there with them.
"Let's see, we're missing Lana, Stacey, Kevin, Rick, and Duke." Zelda
said before another warp opened and Kevin, Rick, and Duke stepped out.
"Where'd he go?" Kevin asked.
"What's that?" Rick pointed to a warp at the castle entrance, where a
young boy, who Kevin guessed looked about thirteen years old, and a machine
that could easily pass as Gameboy's twin, jumped through a warp.
The N Team, Link, and Zelda followed.
"What's going on here?" Rick asked.
The warp had taken the group to Dr. Right's lab, where Dr. Right, Lana,
and Stacey were watching the viewscreen.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't the Nerd Team!" the guy at the other end
said.
"You better tell us who you are-icus!" Kid Icarus demanded.
The man smirked. "That, Cherub, is for you to find out!"
"Why did you call us?" Dr. Right asked.
"Because I have something you need."
The man gestured to a couple of robots behind him, and they disappeared.
They came back a moment later with a woman who looked exactly like the
hologram Dr. Right, Kevin, and Lana had seen earlier.
Wait a minute, she was the hologram they had seen earlier!
"Dr. Shiroshi is free to go." The man smiled evilly. "If all of you
surrender."
"Don't listen to him, Gameboy! It's a trap!"
"Tranquilize her." the man ordered one of the robots.
"You're insane, Tilaski!" Dr. Right addressed the man.
Dr. Tilaski laughed. "You have one hour. Your lives, or hers. It's your
choice. Ta ta!"
The viewscreen went blank.
"What do we mega do now?!" Mega Man asked.
"I'm afraid we have no choice." Kevin replied.
Dr. Right snapped his fingers. "Maybe we do!" he exclaimed. "Rick, Romeo,
Julius, Stacey, your weapons are the most advanced of their kind in
Videoland. Maybe they're strong enough to defeat this madman!"
"How'd we do, Dad?" Adrian Tilaski asked when he and GP returned to the
lab.
"Excellent." the mad scientist replied. "Now you need to lure those
nitwits here. I have a little 'surprise' waiting for them."
"What do we do with the Doc?" Adrian asked.
"Leave her to me." Dr. Tilaski walked over to his computer and began the
activation sequence.
"What's that building?" Lana asked.
The warp had taken the group to an unknown area of Kongoland. Just a few
yards ahead was a strange old building that seemed far out of place in the
primitive jungle.
"Must be where we're supposed to go." Kevin replied.
Gameboy hovered closer to the building. He had an unsure look on his
face.
"What's wrong, Gameboy?" Lana asked.
Gameboy didn't answer. He just kept going.
"Follow him!" Kevin ordered.
"They are here." GP watched the console with the Tilaski duo.
"Time to take action." Dr. Tilaski said. "You remember what to do?"
"Affirmative." GP said. "Strike, Bolt, Griz, gather your squads. We have
a fight on our hands."
"Hey, Gameboy, what're you doing?" Kevin asked.
The group was only a few feet away from the building. Rather than
stopping with the rest of the N Team, Gameboy continued into it.
"I smell a trap." Rick said.
"Your senses are strong." an unfamiliar voice said.
An army of robots surrounded the rest of the N Team.
Gameboy looked around the building. What was it he had sensed earlier
that led him here? He had never felt it before, but it seemed so familiar.
And why had it stopped just now?
"Welcome, Gameboy." Gameboy recognized that voice right away. It was the
voice of the guy who called Dr. Right right before they came here. "I hope
you enjoy your stay."
"Gameboy, look out!" a female voice shouted.
Gameboy hovered to the left as a lightning bolt flashed past him, just
barely missing.
Gameboy could see who had warned him. A young woman, the same one on the
viewscreen, Dr. Shiroshi, now ran to his side. She had a strange gun-like
weapon in her hand and was now firing at what seemed like hundreds of robots
that had witnessed the event.
"Gameboy, do you see the small grey thing on top of the console?" Dr.
Shiroshi asked.
Gameboy nodded.
"It's an Electric Impulse Disrupter, or EID. I want you to get it for
me."
Gameboy hovered to the console, sprouted hands, got the EID, and hovered
back to the doctor.
"Thank you." She blasted another robot, who crashed into the trees that
were behind him. "Let's go!" Li Shirishi ran towards the exit with Gameboy
at her heels.
The N Team had done a pretty good job wiping out the robots. Now only
five remained. These five were GP, Strike, who resembled a tiger, Griz, the
bear-like robot, Bolt, who Mega Man thought could pass for Elec Man's twin,
and Aero, a falcon-like robot. These seemed indestructable with the N Team's
weapons.
"Man, my mega buster doesn't leave a dent!" Mega Man exclaimed.
"None of my arrows have any effecticus!" Kid Icarus added.
"What're these guys made of?" Rick asked.
"Vitanium."
Gameboy and Dr. Shiroshi joined the group. Dr. Shiroshi's weapon made
short work of Strike, Bolt, Griz, and Aero.
"Dr. Shiroshi, I presume." Kevin said.
"Nice to meet you, Captain N." the doctor said, shaking Kevin's right
hand. "Nice to meet all of you."
"I hate to break up this happy moment," Dr. Tilaski said, walking with
his son and GP towards the group, "but the fat lady hasn't sung yet."
An electricity field surrounded most of the N Team, and Dr. Shiroshi, but
not Gameboy.
"The N Team is finished! Videoland is mine!" Tilaski said triumphantly.
"Not yet!" Li Shiroshi replied. "Gameboy, use the Electric Impulse
Disrupter!"
"The what?" Simon asked.
"I'll explain later." Li said.
Gameboy, who still had the EID, turned the dial and hit the button. The
electricity field around the N Team disappeared, and sparks flew from Ivan
and Adrian Tilaski and GP.
"Like, what happened?" Stacey asked.
"They were machines." Li explained. "Dr. Right and the other Li Shiroshi
built them, but then she stole them and reprogrammed them to serve her evil
purposes."
"Can we say 'Dr. Wily wannabe'?" Lana asked.
"Why wasn't Gameboy affected by that thing?" Zelda asked.
"There's a chip in his 'brain' that makes him immune." the doctor
explained.
"And I wasn't affected, because I'm half-human." Mega Man added.
"Dr. Shiroshi, - " Lana addressed the scientist.
"Call me Li." Li said, smiling.
"Li, you're from the Mirror World, right?"
"Yes."
"How did you get here?"
"It was tricky. Shortly after I completed Gameboy, when the Tilaskis and
the other 'bots raided by lab, I opened up a warp and took Gameboy to a
secret hiding place in Mirror World. I recorded a holographic message and
stuck the tube into Gameboy."
"We found it." Lana said, nodding.
"Then I went to the Mirror Warp, which I knew could take me to another
world. My Opposite here was also at the warp, of course. She stepped through
it, not knowing what it was. I took the opportunity, and we sort of traded
places."
"You left without Gameboy?" Zelda asked.
"I couldn't bring him." Li said, shaking her head. "I didn't want him
fearing for his . . . life all the time, like I've been doing. So, I left
him in the company of some villagers."
"Villagers?" Lana asked. "In a poor village very close to the warp?"
Li nodded. "Yes. You know it?"
"We've been there." Mega Man said. "The King of Videoland lived there."
Li nodded. "That's the place."
"And he was there since September 12, 1989?" Lana asked.
Li nodded again.
"So he was there when we were there!" Kevin realized. "Man, that's weird!
We were so close to him before we even met him! And we never knew it!"
Li laughed.
"My father must've found him and taken a liking to him soon after we left
Mirror World." Lana realized. "Then he sent him to us to help us in our war
with Mother Brain."
Kevin took out a warp zone opener and pressed a button. A warp opened.
Link, Zelda, Kid Icarus, Simon, Rick, Stacey, Romeo, Julius, and Duke
walked through.
"Are you mega coming with us?" Mega Man asked.
"I can't." Dr. Shiroshi said.
"Why not?" Lana asked.
"I have my own home. Michael, Tempo, and Jazz are probably worried."
"Who are they?" Kevin asked.
"Other robots I've created." Li explained. "Michael and Jazz are like
Mega Man and Mega Girl, only as tall as a human. Tempo's a robot wolf."
"We won't forget you." Kevin said with a smile.
"Don't worry. I'll come visit you guys. I don't live that far from Dr.
Right's lab." Li gave Gameboy a hug. "Be good, Gameboy."
Gameboy nodded.
Kevin, Lana, Mega Man, and Gameboy jumped through the warp.
Li opened a warp and jumped through.
The Concert Hall was packed. Kevin's group, Captain N & The Video Game
Masters, had hit big time with their first tune, Vampire Killer, but that
audience seemed as small as a G-Rated movie theater's compared to this one.
The N Team, Dr. Right, Li Shiroshi, and Mega Girl were all in the front
row. They were seated from left to right in the following order: Rick,
Julius, Romeo, Simon, Gameboy, Li, Dr. Right, Mega Man, Kid Icarus, and Mega
Girl.
Just then, Kevin, Lana, Mike, and Stacey walked onto the stage, in their
black attire. Kevin and Lana were carrying their guitars. They took their
places. The audience cheered.
"Thank you!" Kevin shouted into the microphone once the applause had died
down. "Our first song tonight we'd like to dedicate to Gameboy!"
The audience applauded.
"And his creator, Dr. Li Shiroshi!"
More applause rose from the audience.
"We call it the Gameboy Mix!" Kevin finished.
With that, the band began to play a medly of the title songs to various
games. First, 'Battle of the Holy', the tune from Stage 1 of The Castlevania
Adventure. Then the title music from Kid Icarus, the Gameboy version. After
that was the title music from Mega Man III, the Gameboy version. And last
was the title music from Donkey Kong.
After they finished, the audience cheered loudly.